Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0017: Constraints on Production Capacity
"You've already made money once the war started. Why do you want to get involved in the empire's political affairs after the war this time?" Clark glanced at Des and asked.
"Of course it's for greater benefits! The mayor of Seris is very interesting. He has developed a new woodworking machine that allows the Longtate family to monopolize the woodworking market." Desel told the truth, but used the truth to conceal the truth of the matter.
"I'm afraid it's not just carpentry." Prime Minister Clark was an experienced man and naturally would not easily believe Des' explanation, so he asked again.
"Of course, there is also a new type of loom! Think about it, the cloth market is much larger than the woodworking market..." Des continued to speak the truth and answered.
"That makes sense... The young mayor of Seris was confident that he could pay the 4,500 gold coins in taxes to the three places, so he decided to take over Maine and the ferry." Clark nodded, understanding the whole story.
The Longtate family was only thinking about getting rich, and they were planning to use 50,000 gold coins to beat their prime minister. What a good plan! Thinking of this, Clark stared at Des with a smile, and his tone became a little cold. He said, "Then I wish the Longtate family great wealth."
"Here, the Prime Minister still needs to do his best in front of His Majesty, so Desel came here this time, intending to do a good business with the Prime Minister." Desel knew that Prime Minister Clark was greedy, so he didn't wait for the other party to make a move and directly talked about cooperation.
Sure enough, after hearing the other party's words, Clark smiled and waited for Des to continue.
Des didn't hesitate, he stretched out a hand and said to Prime Minister Clark: "Fifty thousand gold coins a year!"
"Hmm..." Clark remained silent, waiting for Des' next words.
"These fifty thousand are sent to the Prime Minister's residence as taxes..." Des drawled out the answer, waiting for Clark to express his opinion.
"6,000 per year!" Clark didn't let Des wait too long, and said directly: "In addition, you have to give me another 200,000 gold coins!"
This time it was Des' turn to remain silent. Although he was young, he was an experienced businessman. He knew that Clark would definitely give a satisfactory explanation for the remaining 200,000 gold coins.
"After all, Seris has already occupied three cities, and can no longer use his status as a lord! If His Majesty wants to confer the title of Grand Duke, it will take some effort to make it happen." Clark said solemnly.
Des nodded. "The price is fair! I'll have someone send the money over this afternoon. Your Excellency the Prime Minister is loyal to the country and works tirelessly. You are truly a role model for the world!"
"Okay! Okay! Someone, come on! Show the guests out!" Clark's smile widened and he shouted loudly to the people in the hall.
When Des walked out of Prime Minister Clark's mansion, Strid was still waiting outside the door.
He walked forward with a smile, took Strid's hand and said, "It's done! It cost me a full 200,000 gold coins!"
"Ah?" Hearing what Des said, Strid trembled with : he had never seen so much money as 200,000 gold coins in his life. If he had 200,000 gold coins, would he still need to manage a territory?
"It's not without gain." Des smiled and took Strid's hand as they walked forward, saying, "Soon, Lord Chris will be called... Grand Duke Chris!"
After saying that, he glanced at the confused Strid and said with a smile: "Let's go! Let's go to Seris City together!"
…
At this moment, Chris, who had been designated as the Grand Duke of Ireland Hill, still didn't know about his promotion and salary increase. He was staring blankly at a pile of drawings, looking no different from a tech geek.
Even though Seris already had a lot of processing equipment and steam engines as power, there was still a lot to do. Rome was not built in a day, and Seris's industrial system could not be perfected in just a dozen days.
The ability to manufacture machinery so quickly is actually directly related to some of the reserve materials in Seris City: the city defense forces have reserves of kerosene, which can be refined into various petroleum compounds. Seris City is rich in special iron materials such as pyroxene, and its smelting technology is also outstanding.
In addition, some other special materials can be temporarily replaced, so Seris can quickly produce a large number of industrial machinery and complete the construction of the first few factories.
But then, problems began to arise: the various raw materials needed for industry were too numerous to be supported by a small city like Seris. The rapid industrialization began to enter a bottleneck period and had to slow down.
"There are so many problems facing us..." Deans leaned back in his chair and complained to Chris who hurried back to Seris from Ferry City: "If you don't come back, I don't know what to do."
He pushed a few reports in front of Chris and said helplessly, "We are producing cloth and wood products too fast. No merchants can take so much goods."
Chris had just returned, and before he even had time to drink his saliva, he picked up the reports from the table and read them carefully. There were indeed many problems.
For example, the cotton and other materials stored in Seris City have been used up, and his factory is facing the dilemma of material shortage and shutdown. What's more terrible is that although the price has been adjusted to half of the original price of the goods, these items are still seriously unsalable due to the large quantity.
"The situation with ironware is a little better. After the stamping machine was assembled according to your drawings, we started mass-producing plate armor and utensils at a very fast speed... We still have enough raw materials, but the reserves are also decreasing." Deans said worriedly.
At this point, he looked at Chris and said painfully, "Originally, we still had more than 1,000 Mayne captives who could be used for mining... but because of the need to maintain stability, you ordered the release of most of the innocent people, which ruined our plan to increase production."
Chris was helpless when he heard Deans say this: "The people in Maine are angry because of that bastard Berman. If I don't do this, I might only be able to quell the riot in Maine..."
"I know that, but now these things have to be dealt with one by one." Deans tried his best, but the things he faced were too new, so new that he had no experience to deal with them properly.
Chris didn't have any particularly good ideas, so he could only pin his hopes on Des, who had not yet appeared again. He hoped that this businessman Des could help him open up the market and start a completely healthy operation.
"For the time being, we will send the excess cloth produced to Maine and Ferry City!" Chris thought about it and arranged things one by one: "Let the surrendered soldiers from Ferry City be responsible for transportation, and distribute the cloth wherever they arrive! Consider it a consolation from the City Lord's Mansion!"
"Similarly, send the excess cheap woodworking products to these two places and sell them at half price. If that doesn't work, sell them at one-tenth of the price! The cheaper the better!" After making the calculations, Chris's subsequent orders became coherent: "In addition, all workers in Seris City and factory-related personnel will have half of their wages converted into products! Deduct the lowest price... If you want cloth, give me cloth; if you want furniture, give me furniture!"
Opening up the domestic market and dumping products is the only solution for Chris now. The biggest disadvantage of this method is that it does not make money. This is also the pain of extreme industrialization, and Chris has to bear it.
Deans nodded and smiled bitterly in his heart: cheaply produced furniture and cloth, in the end, had to be given away for almost free, almost the same as throwing them away. This was really an irony that he had never dared to think about before...
While Deans was daydreaming, Chris had already stood up, walked to his cabinet, and took out a stack of blueprints from a locked drawer and started to read them. He carefully examined the blueprints in front of him, weighing the pros and cons of the various weapons and equipment on them.
These drawings were all drawn by him before he left, and they were all weapons and equipment that the current industrial level of Seris City could not produce. Chris had to choose the weapons that were suitable for the next step of production from these weapons. This was a very painful task, and it could only be done by him alone.
"Our current situation is not optimistic. The factory's production capacity is too low, so low that I have to temporarily give up many advanced weapons and equipment." Putting down a design drawing of an automatic rifle, Chris looked at Deans, who seemed to understand.
He now has to choose an individual weapon for his troops. Although artillery is powerful, if the weapons and equipment of each soldier cannot be improved, the troops without artillery will not be able to carry out combat missions independently.
It was worthwhile for Chris to think about which gun to choose as a single-soldier weapon: sometimes, the best weapon is not necessarily the most suitable. Thinking of this, he looked at the drawing of the simple and practical AK47 assault rifle on the table reluctantly, and sighed as he had to give it up reluctantly.
Because of the production capacity, he had to give up many weapons and equipment whose manufacturing process was not complicated. AK47 was just one of them. For example, mortars, simple and practical rocket launchers, etc. - he could not equip these weapons and equipment.
Chris, who has an industrial foundation, is not unwilling to equip more mortars, but the production speed of shells cannot keep up with the consumption of mortars. Now Chris knows how difficult it is to maintain a modern army: just the production of weapons is a step that tests industrial strength. The pitiful production capacity he has now cannot even supply the war consumption of an infantry company...
